Ultimately the decision of whether you shoot Ultramax or Gold will come down to personal preference. The headline difference in light sensitivity and price - Ultramax is both more light sensitive and more expensive - is often enough to drive the decision. And the good news is that both films have legions of fans around the world! So we honestly don’t feel like there can be a bad decision. Kodak Gold makes a surprisingly good night film. This shot here was taken using Kodak Gold in 120 format on my Hasselblad camera, and it shows just how versatile this film is.

This makes Kodak Gold a popular choice for portrait and landscape photography, while Kodak Ultramax is popular for outdoor and snapshot photography. Kodak Gold will make the sharpest images with the most dynamic range at ISO 200, but can easily be pushed or pulled in changing light. But Kodak Gold can be shot between ISO 50 and ISO 400 on the same roll without push or pull processing, making it a fantastic film shooting at any time of day.The wide exposure latitude means I can trust my in-camera light meter and just fire away, and the low cost of the film means it doesn’t matter too much if some shots do get messed up or I feel the need to take them more than once.

Kodak Gold is available in 120 film so you now have the option to shoot this amazingly popular emulsion in either (or both) 35mm or 120! Ultramax is currently only available as a 35mm film. For many, photography was reserved for holidays and other special occasions where real memories are made. For a number of reasons, a good percentage of these memories were captured on Gold 200. Though Portra 160 is suitable for a variety of situations, it is far from the most versatile film. Its low sensitivity limits usage in low light, and shooters who find themselves wanting to emphasize particularly colorful surroundings will be left wanting. But when used for its intended application of portraiture and airy people photography, it performs well. Buy it here in 35mm, here in medium format.This means that Kodak Gold has lower light sensitivity and is better suited for well-lit situations, while Kodak Ultramax is better for lower light conditions. Additionally, Ultramax is known for its fine grain, high sharpness and vibrant colours, while Gold is known for its natural colour reproduction and good skin tones.

But there are also lots of similarities - the broad shape of the curves, the wavelengths where each of them peak - these indicate that the look you'll get from your images will be pretty alike in comparable lighting. I also found the sharpness more than acceptable and a fair amount of contrast too when I shot it in the afternoon sun.

The Technical Bit

For a consumer film at an affordable price, the grain is fine, smooth, and subtle. It compares favorably to other cheap films, creating natural, vintage-looking images. With other budget films, corners have been cut to produce a cheaper product, meaning that you end up with heavy grain. That’s not true with this great film from Kodak. Kodak Gold has a lot of overexposure latitude, so I knew that metering for the cashier would mean that I wouldn’t blow out the details on the neon sign outside, even though it’s significantly brighter. And over this last year, I’ve been putting it to the paces. I’ve shot 40 rolls of Kodak film, and used it as my daily driver in everything from the Ilford Sprite 35-II camera ( see why this is the most fun film camera of all time here) to my favorite Hasselblad Camera. If you like shooting in direct sunlight, Kodak Gold is fantastic for that and will still maintain details in the highlights. Last in the Portra line is Portra 800, Kodak’s higher speed color negative offering. In some ways, Portra 800 is a bit redundant considering Portra 400’s exposure latitude covers nearly all of Portra 800’s effective range. But Portra 800 is another spectacular option when light gets really low, and I find Portra 800 shines particularly when used for this intended application.

Related Article: How to Shoot Kodak Portra 400 Where Kodak Gold Performs Best And Where It Struggles

What I mean there is, new offerings like JCH Street Pan 400 are great – they really are – but they’re new. And while Ilford films have a grand history, I don’t imagine many 1980s holidaying housewives were loading HP5 into their Canon Sure Shots. Lighting Conditions: If you will be shooting in low light conditions, you should choose Kodak Ultramax as it has an ISO speed of 400. If you will be shooting in well-lit situations, Kodak Gold with its ISO speed of 200 is a good choice. Capturing new vintage holiday memories on Gold 200 sounds like a very good idea, though, and I’m already looking forward to doing that. The magnitude of Kodak successfully rereleasing a film like Ektachrome is huge. It’s also a milestone that, frankly, many of us never thought possible. We’d been through this before with other film projects. Big promises on social media to #keepfilmalive, the flashy promotional campaign, the buzzworded crowdfunding, and the whole load of nothing that happens afterwards. For more than a year we heard just a few intermittent reports that Ektachrome was still coming. And now, proving our fears wrong, it’s finally here.